What Your Doctor Checks First

Finding and treating any sleep problems outside of your ADHD is the first step to sleeping well. Your doctor will first want to rule out conditions like sleep apnea, insomnia, or snoring.

Sometimes, sleep problems can be due to your ADHD symptoms. People with ADHD often complain that their minds are overactive and keep churning when they go to sleep, "They have difficulty turning off and going to bed,” says Lenard Adler, MD, professor of psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center.

You may know that you should go to sleep, but you want to read one more chapter in your book, or watch one more TV show. Before you know it, you're up hours past your bedtime.

"These are symptoms of self-management and self-control," says J. Russell Ramsay, PhD, co-director of the University of Pennsylvania Adult ADHD Treatment & Research Program. "They think, 'I know exactly what I need to do, but I have a hard time doing it.'"